Optimal Lifestyle - Dr. Steph Peacock

The Optimal Lifestyle

The billion dollar question

What’s the deal with weight loss? How can we sustainably lose weight and keep it off, all while feeling we aren’t restricting ourselves or getting “hangry”? This is a billion dollar industry in which companies create diet fads which cause people to lose weight short term. The problem is, these people will either get too hungry or can’t sustain their current caloric restriction, which results in weight gain. What if there was a way of eating, in which we could feel good, look good, and never have to be on a caloric deficit indefinitely?

Is caloric restriction the answer?

Losing weight by caloric restriction can work short term.

Calories = 1 pound of fat

Theoretically, cutting 500 calories a day from your diet would result in overall weight loss. But, if you were to keep this up forever, would you just disappear? The answer, is no obviously, but what is the reason why? It’s a phenomenon known as metabolic adaptation, which in the case of losing weight results in the slowing of our metabolic rate. In other words, it takes fewer calories to exist as a thin person! Therefore, the more weight you lose, the fewer calories it takes for your body to burn just existing.

Every pound of weight loss may reduce our resting metabolic rate by 7 calories a day ¹. While it takes fewer calories to exist with losing weight, another effect also occurs which is an increase in our appetite. Therefore, as you lose weight, your metabolic rate decreases while your appetite increases. This is the problem with all the diet fads, they keep you on the
same caloric restriction so you become starving and unable to keep going. This usually results in a binge of your favorite foods, and becomes a yo-yo diet effect. For every pound you lose, your appetite will rev-up about 45 calories³.

Is it your fault?

Rest assured, if you have been unable to lose weight, it isn’t your fault. The diet industries want you to be in this yo-yo cycle, because it will keep you investing in them. The problem is their excellent marketing skills, and their lack of truly trying to help you regain a healthy lifestyle. They’re called diet fads for a reason, it’s a short term loss of weight without sustainability.

This brings us to talk about a very specific diet, known for weight loss but actually results in serious health implications: the ketogenic diet. This diet focuses on high fat and low carbohydrate intake. While on the keto diet, rates of body fat loss are slowed by more than half. Most of the “weight” people are losing on this diet is water. This is because water follows carbohydrates when absorbed in your body, and by restricting carbs you lose water, which decreases weight. Without carbohydrates, the preferred fuel for your body, the body will start to burn more of its own protein, which results in less loss of fat mass and more fat-free mass.

In general, high fat diets are associated with a number of health issues:

• Increased breast cancer risk
• Triple the risk of dying from prostate cancer
• Increased insulin resistance, resulting in diabetes and other metabolic irregularities

So, what’s the best lifestyle choice?

Finally, lets talk about the lifestyle that can reduce your risk of heart disease, diabetes, and autoimmune disease.

This way of eating has numerous benefits:

Increased energy
Increased mental clarity
Improved overall vitality
Reduced weight

This is a whole food plant based diet!

Whole plant foods contain fiber, while animal based foods do not. Fiber is important for numerous reasons, but for relevance to this article, it keeps you full and satiated longer. As a result, you can eat more food that is less calorically dense, and not gain weight. This is the key to a sustainable weight loss approach. You don’t have to feel hungry, starve yourself, or over exercise in order to lose weight.

In numerous studies, people placed on a plant based diet were more likely to make persistent changes in their eating patterns
and were on average lighter years down the road than when they started ².

Eating more calories can in fact result in more fat loss! This is because whole plant foods do not contain saturated fat, which is one of the leading drivers of weight gain. This lifestyle reduces cholesterol and toxin exposure as well.

While eating this diet, you are exposed to the many varieties of plants that exist on our beautiful planet. You are maximizing whole plant and unprocessed foods, by eating a variety of fruits, vegetables, legumes, whole grains, nuts, seeds, mushrooms, herbs, and spices. It’s highly anti-inflammatory and results in decreased risk of diseases of dietary excess. These diseases are caused by excess consumption of calories, particularly animal fat and protein along with refined carbohydrates. Some of these conditions include high blood pressure, diabetes, atherosclerosis, and autoimmune diseases.

This diet allows you to decrease risk of suffering from these diseases and allows you to live the amazing, healthy life you deserve!

Say goodbye!

Over exercising
Diet fads
Yo-yo dieting
“Cleanses”

Say good-bye to feeling you aren’t in control of your life. You are in control, and you can eat this way and feel good while being at your optimal weight. Say good-bye to being lied to. You now have the knowledge and power to make these amazing lifestyle choices regardless of what these diet fad companies tell you.

References

If you would like to sustainably lose weight without feeling hungry, and enjoy the foods you eat, I would love to discuss this with you. I am passionate about helping people transition to a plant based diet, without feeling restricted, so that they can live their most optimal life.